How to Speed Up Windows XP

Many people are wondering how to speed up Windows XP, because they have found that their computer performance has degraded over time. For the many people that use Windows XP, having a slow computer is a major annoyance and source of frustration. But thankfully, oftentimes this problem is easy to fix.

A part of the Windows XP operating system, known as the registry, may easily be what is causing your computer to run slow. Even the computers with the most advanced and expensive hardware can still have problems with their registry.

Millions of computers that are running slow are slow due to a registry problem. But thankfully, you can learn how to speed up Windows XP by fixing the registry.

The registry is essentially a database for the Windows operating system that stores all of the information and settings needed to run your computer.

All of the information related to tasks on the computers, such as programs or even simple web pages, is stored in the registry. It is clearly vital to Windows XP, but unfortunately it is very commonly plagued with issues that make it run slowly.

Because the registry is so important to the proper functioning of Windows XP,it is used and modified constantly as you use your computer. Everything you do on your computer uses and changes registry systems, which over time can lead to a number of problems with the files in the registry.

The reason your computer runs slow is mostly because the registry is filled with corrupt and damaged files. This means that your computer will not be able to read the files fast enough, which slows down the speed of your computer. So if you want to figure out how to speed up Windows XP, you need to learn how to fix the registry.

All kinds of computers running a version of Windows suffer from problems with the registry, but thankfully you can fix problems with your registry and get your computer functioning at its highest performance level by using a simple registry cleaner tool.

7 Easy Ways to Make Windows Start-Up Faster, Instantly

Do you face the frustrating problem of slow Windows XP start-up? Here are some easy steps to follow to speed up the booting process in your computer.

1. Removing virus and cleaning your registry- This is the most important and easiest thing to do! Getting rid of viruses and repairing broken registry files can help in many ways including faster boot ups. You can use registry cleaners to easily and quickly clean Windows registry.

2. Boot defragmenting - when you perform a boot defragment on your system, all the boot files are placed together, right next to each other, on the hard disk. This obviously can speed up the windows xp slow to start problem you face. Usually of course this option is enabled but there is no harm in making sure by running the registry editor, going to the Hkey_local_machine software MS Dfrg BootOptimizeFunction and checking if it is "Y". Else set it to "Y" and reboot your system.

3. Hard disk maintenance - You can start with defragmenting the hard disk. This could give better access to data which in turn makes your computer start faster. When the disk is fragmented, data is stored in multiple areas; this means it has to be searched and put together before being used. You can use the "Disk Defragmenter" option in the System Tools. Hard disks develop bad sectors over a period of time; it will be a good idea to scan for them and repair them. This can be taken up as a periodic exercise to get freedom from windows xp slow to start.

4. Getting more memory or using a Flash memory - installing more RAM instantly speeds up the start up process. You could get a flash drive like a USB thumb drive/ SD card and use special programs to speed up performance using the drive inserted in the USB port.

5. Removing programs during start up - there may be a number of applications that automatically are set to load up when the computer boots. Removing unwanted ones can speed up booting substantially.

6. Display setting optimization - by tweaking the visual effects and toning them down completely you can realize a huge improvement in windows xp slow to start.

7. Doing away with the indexing option - the index option is ON to help you carry out file searches faster. But if you know your file locations you might hardly ever need to search and in such a scenario the indexing option can be OFF. This saves a lot of CPU effort.

Hide Notification Balloons

It may be very annoying when Windows popping up a balloon notification telling you things you already know every time you turn on your machine, here is a tip on permanently disabling them.

You should note that this will disable all balloon notifications, so proceed with caution.

Steps:

1. Click on Start \ Run and type in regedit
2. Now we will navigate to this path in your registry.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

3. On the right pane right click on an open area and choose New \ DWORD Value

4. You will see New Value #1. Change this to EnableBalloonTips.

5. Next double click the new registry entry you created. In the Value Data field set it to 0 (zero). Make sure Hexadecimal is selected under Base. Click OK.

6. Finally restart your system and enjoy the clean boot up with no balloons popping up at you.

Note: To undo the changes simply change the value to 0 from 1.

Directly Boot To the desktop in Windows XP Home / Professional

If you want to log in to your desktop directly after rebooting, you can automate the login process easily.

Note: For security reasons, you would usually want to have a password, but for a home computer you may not care.

Steps to be followed to skip log in screen

1. Go to the Start menu, click Run, and type in the following:
control userpasswords2
You will be presented with a window similar to this one:



Uncheck the box, and click the OK button. You will be presented with a password dialog for the currently logged in user.

Now when you reboot your system, you will automatically be logged in.

This can be very useful when you are installing a bunch of software or testing out configurations and want to save time.

Fix "My Computer" Opening Slowly in Windows XP

Sometimes “My Computer” takes a really long time to open, it is a very well-known issue where Windows hangs while trying to search for network folders and printers before displaying anything to you.

The steps to resolve this issue are very easy, and most of us are probably familiar with the fix already, but we’ll go through it anyway:

1.Open up Folder Options from the Tools menu in Windows Explorer:
2.Then choose the View tab.
3.Uncheck the box for “Automatically search for network folders and printers”, and close the dialog.
4.The changes should be immediate, and your problem should be gone.

Steps to Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP

If you are running Windows 7 and have XP on PC(s) you might want to share files between them. The following are the steps to share files and hardware devices like a printer.

Sharing Files In Windows 7 and XP

Sharing folders between two Windows 7 machines with the new HomeGroup feature is an easy process, but the HomeGroup feature is not compatible with Vista or XP. For this tutorial we are using Windows 7 x64 RC1 and XP Professional SP3 connected through a basic Linksys home wireless router.

First make sure both machines are members of the same Workgroup which by default is named Workgroup.

On the Windows 7 machine go into Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items \ Network and Sharing Center then click on Change advanced sharing settings.

You will want to verify the following settings under Advanced Sharing Settings for the Home or Work and Public profile.

If you want any user to have access the public shares turn off password protection. This is located in Advanced Sharing Settings toward the bottom of the list.

If you want to keep it enabled make sure there is a log in account for the other XP machines and they have a password.

Now if you go into Network in Windows 7 you should see your XP machine and the Windows 7 as well.

To share the printer on the Windows 7 machine go into Devices and Printers from the Start menu and double click on the printer icon.

Next double click on “Customize your printer”.

In the Properties screen click on the Sharing Tab and check the box to share the printer and type in its share name.

If your XP machine is an x86 OS you can install Additional Drivers before setting up the XP machine.

To find the shared folders and devices double click on the Windows 7 machine icon under Network. Here you can see the printer connected to my Windows 7 machine is shared and also the Users Folder.

Continue into the Users folder and Public to see the shared folders, here I also created a folder called XP Share just to keep everything in central location.

Over on your XP machine open up My Network Places to find the Windows 7 shared folder.
Double click on the Share folder to find a list of shared folders in the Public folder on Windows. If you have password protection enabled you will need to type in the username and password of the user account on the Windows 7 machine first.

Setup XP With Shared Printer

To set up the shared printer in XP you will need to go into Printers and Faxes from the Start menu and kick off the Add Printer Wizard.

Now select “A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer” then hit Next.

Next select “Connect to this printer…” and type in the path for the printer connected to the Windows 7 machine and click next.

Now click Yes to the confirmation message.

Then click Finish the printer to install and complete the Wizard.

In some cases you will need to install the x86 XP drivers for the shared printer because the Windows 7 drivers are not compatible with XP. When everything is installed open up Printers and Faxes to find the shared printer.

This should help you get started with sharing your files and other devices with your Windows 7 machine.